Stinkin Thinkin

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

And turn with me this morning in your Bibles to Jonah.

The last chapter, chapter 4 of the book of Jonah.

And let me remind you, we're very honored today to have a very special guest and a very, very dear friend of mine.

We love Keith Brown.

Where's Keith?

There he is in the back.

Just lost his dad.

Dad went on to be with Jesus.

And he's also probably one of the key persons in our Baptist Association, Shelby Baptist Association.

I'm telling you, when Keith, I've just not seen a more precious, hardworking guy as Keith Brown.

And we also serve as chaplains together with the sheriff's department.

And he's just been a dear friend.

Welcomed me when I first came.

Been right beside me, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him.

In fact, I had a good time.

He calls, I go.

We uh did the first parade of Christmas trees uh last week, and I kind of emceed it.

And uh we had Santa Claus.

I I in fact, Susan, where's Susan?

She's she my wife, there she is.

I I told Santa Claus what I wanted for Christmas.

Has he has he emailed you yet?

No, not yet.

Well speak to you?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I also asked for something else.

Is that okay?

All right.

You know, it's been a great time.

But anyway, listen, with Keith here, our food truck's here, and uh, you've got to, right after service, right after we eat, I want you, many of you have brought some friends or you know friends that need help, and we are blessed.

This is part of our Thanksgiving ritual.

We've been doing it ever since we started.

We've got about 20 to 22 boxes of food over there to feed families.

We want to we want to bless 20 to 22 families today.

We want to do that.

And many of you.

And don't you feel embarrassed and don't you feel uh anything.

You just you uh you go over and and you we'll have people over there waiting to help you uh get your box of food and and just love on you.

And visitors, this is for you too.

And I hope some of you have come because you knew that I asked our people to invite people that we could bless this Thanksgiving with food.

That's what our convention does, that's what our association does, that's why we are such an active member in our association and the Christmas uh shop that's already starting for people to receive Christmas that couldn't afford Christmas.

And we're helping several there.

So that's why we're here, that's why you give on Sundays.

That's why we tithe.

That's why we give back, so that we can be a blessing to people in our community.

So, Keith, thank you.

It's always good to have our truck here, but also to have you with us on.

We do this in Thanksgiving and we do it in Easter, around Easter, the week and before Easter.

So we can be a blessing to families in our community.

So, and if you know some families that they may not be here, but you invite them to need help, you we will make sure that they get the food.

So, and I mean that.

And and we go visit them.

We don't just take them to food, we go love on them.

Can I get an amen?

That's who we are.

So, again, thank you.

Well, Jonah, this will be the last message in the series.

By the way, anybody need a worship guide that outlines on the back?

Anyone?

Huh?

Well, I've got a few.

We've got three or four.

Anybody needs one right over here?

Okay, good, good.

Amen.

Amen.

It's been a have you enjoyed this series on Jonah?

Amen.

Isn't it been great?

It's really been challenging.

It's been convicting.

Boy, has it been convicting.

And uh you know what I loved about Jonah?

Jonah is so real.

I mean, it it makes me what?

Rely myself.

When I look, when I look into the Word of God, the mirror, and that's what it's called in Hebrews 4.12.

It's a mirror.

As I look into the book of Jonah, I see a lot of my selfishness.

I know I'm the only one in the church selfish.

I understand that.

I I see my my selfishness.

Sometimes I see even my bitterness that's, you know, I didn't think's there.

You know, I'm a Christian, I don't get bitter.

Hello.

Hello.

Or sometimes we bitter, we are bitter and we don't even know it.

I see my discouragement.

I see my disappointment in my own life as I'm looking at Jonah's life.

And that's what the word of God does.

It reveals who we really are.

Hello.

It reveals where we really are.

For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of the soul and of the spirit and of the joints and of the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

So when we go into the book, you know what the book does?

The book opens our heart and shows us who we are and what we need to change.

And if you don't think that's a good thing, well, that's your selfishness.

It is a good thing.

So, as we close, the book of Jonah, and then we're going into the Christ of Christmas.

It's gonna be an awesome series.

Three to I think it's gonna be three messages.

We're gonna look at the Christ of Christmas, and then let me tell you, I'm gonna go ahead and give you a little excerpt.

God laid on my heart where we're going first of the year.

We're going to go in a new series on the first of the year.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We're gonna look at what it really means to be filled with the Spirit of God.

We're gonna look at what it means by the baptism of the Spirit of God.

We're gonna deal with what it really means to allow Jesus Christ through the person of the Holy Spirit to completely consume us.

Can I get an amen?

Oh, it's gonna be good.

I guarantee you.

So, you don't want to miss that.

Chapter one, we see Jonah running away from God.

Chapter two, we see Jonah running to God.

Chapter three, we see Jonah running with God.

And then chapter four, we see Jonah running against God.

Sound familiar?

You're away from God, you come to God, now you're with God, and next thing you know, you're not as on fire and faithful and almost running against what you know God wants you to do.

Whew! Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

So, Jonah's been running here against God.

He had just been used in the greatest revival, probably in the Old Testament.

Maybe even as great as the New Testament beginning on the day of Pentecost.

We it says everybody got saved, and we know 120,000 of them were kids that didn't know the difference between right and wrong, Jonah said.

So we see, and there was anywhere from 400, some have estimated to 400,000 up to possibly 600,000, we don't know.

We just know it was a big city and a lot of people, and the Bible says they all got saved.

Now, I don't know about you, but if everybody in Chelsea and Westover got saved, that would be a great revival.

And you, it would seem to me, let me just tell you, I hope I wouldn't be like Jonah.

I think I'd probably be having several spells.

I don't think I'd have a bad attitude and be arguing with God.

But after the great revival, we pick up the story in chapter 4, and look what Jonah says.

But it displeased Jonah, and we talked about this two weeks ago exceedingly, and he was very angry.

Now he's angry because God has brought revival to Nineveh.

Now, I don't, I'm not gonna take a lot of time because I've got a lot of stuff to cover.

You remember they were like the Nazis of their day.

They were horrible.

They were, they were just uh terrorists.

They were every, I meant they just did unbelievable things to the Jews when they would, hey, take a city and kill them and cut their heads off, put, stack their heads up in a pyramid, their skulls.

I mean, it was just horrible.

Burn them alive, just horrible.

A lot of what you hear going on today for Christians in the Middle East.

Horrible.

So you gotta don't don't give Jonah such a hard time.

You gotta understand that, and and he lived in the northern part of the region of his city where it had been destroyed and taken by the Assyrians, so chances are Jonah's whole family could have been killed and tortured by the Assyrians.

So I'm trying to give you the context.

So don't be too harsh.

Have you ever been done just really badly, either by your family or by someone that you really thought a lot of?

You ever been done in?

Half of you haven't.

Well, you're it's coming.

I don't mean to be discouraging, it's coming.

Hello, amen.

It's coming.

Hey, it's called the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It's all here.

We're people.

It's coming.

Well, I mean, isn't it hard to kind of love those folks?

Huh?

Isn't it kind of hard sometimes to be nice to those folks?

What do you want to do?

You want to turn and go in the opposite direction?

You don't want to have anything to do with them.

Well, that's the way they're gonna be.

That's it.

I won't try to reach out to them, I won't try to help them, won't try to do anything else.

Now, that's selfishness.

He said, No, but no, no, there are no buts.

That's selfishness.

God says, love your enemies.

I don't like that verse.

Amen.

Hello.

Love your enemies.

Wait, it gets better.

Do good to them that hate you.

Hello, pray for them.

Yeah, I'll pray.

Kill them, God.

Hello, uh, uh, am I right?

Yeah.

I'm still gonna preach that message online.

I'm telling you, it's coming.

But you know that's right.

And then he says, wait, it gets better.

Do good to them that do evil to you.

Matthew 5, you say, is that really in there?

Matthew 5.44.

Glad you asked.

I don't like it.

But it's there.

Amen.

And don't look at me like that.

There's a lot of verses you don't like.

You know why you don't do them?

Huh?

Hello.

Just a thought.

Just a thought.

So, Jonah.

And he prayed.

Look at verse 2 unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country, therefore I fled before into Tarshis, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

In other words, he says, That's why I ran away.

I didn't want to go to Nineveh, because I knew if I go to Nineveh, your grace and your mercy will be bestowed upon them.

They'll get saved, start living for you, and I didn't want that to happen.

Then look what he says next.

Therefore, now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than live.

Can you imagine?

He's just had the greatest revival in probably history, and now he wants to kill himself.

Hello! Something's wrong with this picture.

And then look at verse 4.

And this is where we pick up.

Then said the Lord, does thou?

Oh, I love what the Lord.

He knows how to know us right where we are.

Then said, Does thou well to be in?

He said, What are you angry over?

Why are you so angry?

Why are you so mad?

Why are you so upset?

A whole city just got saved.

I don't understand why you are so upset.

And I know where you're going.

Heaven says there's joy in the presence of angels of God over one center that repents.

Well, this is 400 plus thousand repenting.

Wow.

Why are you upset?

Here's the question to me and you.

Why do we get upset?

When God does something great.

Jealousy?

Bitterness?

Why are you blessing them?

Why are you blessing that church?

Why are you blessing CCW?

Why is this church over here split?

I can tell you why they split.

They're selfish.

Any church that splits, they're selfish.

That's it.

Bottom line.

I just, you go say Pastor Danny said so.

But because the Bible says he endeavors to keep the unity of spirit.

A spirit-filled church would do whatever it takes, whatever's necessary to keep the unity of the body of Christ.

Long as it's biblical.

Can I get an amen?

That's just the way it is.

And so here he says, Why are you upset?

Now watch.

Boy, it gets good.

So Jonah went out of the city, sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city.

Well, you know what he did?

He got mad.

He just said, Well, that's okay.

If that's the way you're going to be God, I'm going to take my ball and go home.

I'm just going to take my ball and I'm going out of the city and I'm going to sit up on the hill and watch.

You know what?

I'm just going to quit going to church.

I'm going to go home and watch church on TV.

Hello.

I'm not going back to those hypocrites at the church.

I know.

Hey, but let me ask you, aren't you one too?

Hello?

You'd say you're a Christian, but you're not going to go to church.

Well, I don't have to go to church.

Yes, you do.

You're part of the church.

Hello.

Teach.

So he takes his ball and goes home, sits on the east side up on the mountain, looking down in the city.

Look at verse 6.

And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief.

So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd.

Oh my.

I had to repent when I read that verse.

Isn't it amazing?

We can be angry, we can be bitter, we can be disillusioned, we can be discouraged, we can be mad at God, and God ought to really take us to the woodshed and chasten us, which he does eventually, and he will.

But isn't it his first response until instead of giving us what we deserve, taking us to the woodshed and chastening us, he blesses us.

Come on.

Wow.

He blesses Jonah.

Jonah's in the hot sun.

He builds him a big shea.

The gourd was big old elephant leaves.

He blesses.

In other words, he's trying to reason with Jonah before he has to take him to the woodshed.

Hello.

Man, that's good, preacher.

Aren't you glad God tries to reason with you when you're out of fellowship before he brings the chastisement?

Now that's a gracious, loving God.

Wow, that's good.

That's worth you being here right there.

Unmerited grace.

It's exceedingly great.

Hey, it's new every morning.

Great is our faithfulness.

Isn't that awesome?

His compassions fail not.

So let's look.

Let's look at this.

He starts out with a real bad attitude.

Would you think he's got a good attitude here?

No.

He's angry with God.

He's blaming God for saving Nineveh.

I mean, this guy has a bad attitude.

You ever had a bad attitude?

Every hand ought to go up.

Come on, twice.

Both of mine are up.

Mine's been up twice.

God, thank you, Ronnie.

I see that hand way back there.

I'm glad to see you today.

Hey, both of mine are up.

Attitude always determines altitude.

Can I get an amen?

Every time.

And we're to have an I can attitude, not an I can attitude.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

Philippians 4.13.

I grew up, I'm really going to tell my age.

There was a little song with a little choo-choo train.

I think again, I think again.

I think you can little train just keep going.

I think again, I think again, I think again.

Never stopped.

Well, for the Christian, it is, I know again, I know again, I know again, I know again, because God said so.

You don't ever give up, you don't ever quit.

You may slow down, but you just keep.

Hey, and every once in a while your wheels on a train just may spin and you're not going anywhere, but bless God, you're moving.

Amen.

You're not standing still.

So, we must have an I can attitude.

Now let's look at, let's look at several things about Jonah in this whole passage as we finish it.

First of all, look at verse 4 and put in your notes.

His discerning, the discerning question from God.

Why are you angry over the Nineveh's repentance?

Why are you angry?

Why are you angry for what I'm doing?

Why are you angry?

Now I know what you're thinking.

I would never be that way.

Well, let me ask you something.

What does it mean to be angry with God?

In the passage, it means to be angry with God is the reason he was angry with God because God was using him to accomplish his will.

So how in the world could any of us be angry with God using us to accomplish his will?

And I know what you're already thinking.

Well, Pastor Danny, I'm not angry with God accomplishing his will in me.

Well, let me ask you the second question.

It's not a trick question.

Is God fulfilling his will in your life right now?

Are you doing what you know God wants you to do?

Because if you're not, you may not be angry with God, but you sure are being disobedient to God.

Disobedience, if stayed, and hey, there, we end up in bitterness.

Disobedience if stayed, or if you stay in disobedience, will lead to bitterness every time.

Every time.

I know.

I've been there.

And you you know what?

Here's the thing.

You say you're not bitter.

That's a good sign that you may be.

If you have to say you're not bitter, you may be.

I know, I'll use that a lot.

And listen to what he says in Psalms 139, 23, 24.

Search me, O God, know my heart.

Try me, know my thoughts.

See if there be any wicked, wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting.

Wow.

And then I love this verse, it's in your notes.

Revelations 3.19.

He said, As many as I love, ooh, I rebuke and chasten.

Now listen, here's what he wants before he rebukes and chasten.

Here's what he would love: be zealous.

Therefore, and repent.

But what he would really love is for you to be jealous and do his will so that he doesn't have to rebuke and chasten.

Can I get an amen?

But he will.

Right now, he blesses Jonah.

He's trying to get Jonah's attention.

And I'm sure in his own mind he had to be thinking about those three days and three nights in the belly of the big fish that God had already saved.

God had saved him from drowning, saved him, put him in all that God had already done.

And he gets excited.

He thanks God for saving him.

He does what God says, he goes and preaches, but yet his heart, whole heart's still not there because by the time he gets through preaching, people get saved.

He's already angry again with God.

Now most of my some of my theological Different brothers and sisters to say, well, he just lost his salvation again.

I kind of would like to agree with them.

But that's not what the scripture teaches.

And that means if I lost my salvation, every time I got angry, I'd be getting saved three or four times a day.

Hello, just being honest.

You with me?

So that's not at all the case.

The case is here's a here's a a prophet of God dealing with God, dealing, hey, with God's will for his life, and he doesn't want to do what God wants him to do, and he's angry and he's questioning and he's arguing with God.

Every one of us have been there.

Some of us are there now.

So, reasoning, here's what I want you to know out of number one.

Reasoning comes before the rod of chastisement.

If you don't write a little note there, reasoning from God comes before he brings his chastisement.

In other words, he will do everything he can to get you to quit arguing and do what he wants you to do before he chastens you or rebukes you.

Can we say thank you, Jesus?

Thank you, God.

That's a good Thanksgiving.

Thank you.

Thank you, God, for your grace and your mercy.

You are so good to me.

Notice the second thing, verse five.

The departure from the city.

The people, here's what I saw.

When God calls us and needs us to do something for his honor and his glory, especially when it comes to leading people to Christ, what's the next thing?

And we got to get better at this.

And I'm not saying we're doing a bad job, but we're just growing so fast.

We've got to get better at discipling people.

Can I get an amen?

That's one of our weak areas.

I'm telling you, I know.

I know that's we're weak.

We're getting so many people saved.

Everybody, somebody getting saved every week.

And the first step of obedience is baptism and baptism, first Sunday in December, two Sundays away.

Some of you, a lot of you have been saved.

You need to follow Lord and Believers' baptism.

That's the first step to obedience.

You've got to do that.

You need to do that.

You ought to want to do that because it pleases him.

That's one of the things that he asks you to do.

Don't argue with him, just do it.

Bless God, hold your nose, go under.

Amen.

I'll hold your nose for you.

But that's being obedient.

If you love me, keep my commandments, John 14, 15.

But here we see, here's what broke my heart.

When God needed Jonah the most, he runs out on him.

Woo! Help me, Jesus.

Help.

When's the last time God told you to do something, you knew it, and you just turned around and went the other way.

So I ain't doing it.

And had a good excuse, didn't you?

You know what your excuse was?

I can help you.

I already know it.

Selfishness.

Yeah.

I ain't doing that.

You can get somebody else.

Or here, you're a little nicer about it.

You come under the radar with it.

The stealth approach.

I'm not qualified.

I don't have that degree.

I don't have that gift.

Oh, the gift people can really use that.

Well, I don't have the gift of evangelism, so I'm I'll let Pastor Danny do all and Brother Rick do all the sharing of the gospel to everybody.

Sorry, that's not what the book says.

Oh, here's what it says: go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature if you have the gift of evangelism.

Sorry, that's not it.

Go ye in all the world, every one of us, and preach the gospel to every creature.

You tell them Jesus is awesome.

Can I get an amen?

Jonah departed when he was needed the most.

You know what I'm learning after 33, 34 years of in the ministry?

When people seem to abort their mission, is when God's got the greatest plan for their life.

I almost aborted my mission.

I wasn't coming to CCW.

I wasn't going to start a church from scratch.

That's hard work.

God didn't call me to do that.

I've already done there, been there, done that.

I'm gonna buy me a serpro.

Do a full-time evangelism.

And I talked and I talked and I talked to David Wilson, and it was like talking to that wall.

And I finally looked at him and said, Well, okay, Mr.

Spiritual Superspirit, what do you think I ought to do?

He said, I think you ought to start a church.

I said, Start a church?

I'm 58 years old.

He said, Well, you just told me you were in your prime.

I said, I lied.

But then God spoke to my heart, and I did put God on the spot.

Now I'm not telling you to do this, but I've done this three times in my life after 35, 34, 35 years serving the Lord.

I I'll kind of put it out of fleece when it's a major change in my life.

And I said, God, you got to sell my house.

David said, Oh, fine, we'll pray and we'll sell your house.

He said, I said, yeah, but you got to sell it this week.

He said, Oh.

I said, wait a minute.

If God's in it, He can do it.

And I was being smart, really.

I don't think I've ever told him that.

I was just being smart.

I said, This will be my way out.

There's no way he's gonna sell it.

It'd been on the market three months.

There's no way he's gonna sell my house.

And we prayed on Friday, Saturday morning.

My neighbor walks in and buys my house on the spot.

You know what I did?

I said, Where's Chelsea?

I guess I'm going to Chelsea.

But I almost ran out on God.

I almost boarded God's mission for my life.

That's it.

It is very difficult for a backslider to tell others how to grow spiritually in the Lord.

I wrote myself a note here.

It is very difficult for a backslider to tell people about Jesus.

Can I get an amen?

So if you're not telling people about Jesus, it may be a sign you may be in the backsliding mode.

And we're going to see that in a minute.

In fact, let's go right to it.

And by the way, let me get you back to selfishness.

Here's a verse that proves that for you.

Proverbs 14, 14.

The backslider said in his heart, hey, the backslider is filled in his heart with his own ways.

That's what Proverbs 14, 14 says.

Selfishness.

Jonah was selfish.

Now with that said, let's look at the signs of backsliding.

You ready?

This is worth you being here.

Here we go.

Signs of backsliding.

Number one, if one grows bolder and with temptation, when one grows bolder and flirts with temptation, there's a good sign you're in the backsliding process.

That means if you start watching stuff you normally wouldn't watch.

Can I get an O me?

Or you start listening to stuff that you normally wouldn't listen to, or getting on the internet and looking at stuff you normally wouldn't look at.

You start flirting with temptation.

You start going places or being with people that are not godly.

Hello.

Start befriending people and start, instead of being the influence for righteousness, next thing you know, you're falling back.

Instead of witnessing, you're not saying anything.

In fact, let's look at what Proverbs.

I saw these verses this week and I said, yes.

I want you to look at Proverbs 14, I mean, chapter 4, verses 14, 15.

Listen to what it says.

Do not enter the path of the wicked.

Look, enter not to the path of the wicked.

Look at the next phrase.

Go not in the way of the evil men.

Look at verse 15.

Avoid it.

Pass not by it.

Turn from it and pass away.

I meant, I underline this.

I mean, do not enter the path, do not walk in the way, avoid it, do not travel on it, turn away from it, pass it by.

I meant six different times.

He says, Don't even come close to the sin.

Can I say something right here honestly and openly?

Which I, and last time I said that, I had a guy ask me, he said, is all that other stuff not honest?

So let me speak from my heart.

We all know where our weakest length is.

And we have one or two choices.

We can put up a barrier and a fence and not even go close, or we can warm ourselves by the fire like Peter did when he had denied the Lord three times and he was put on the spot.

Oh, oh, he's a Galilean.

Oh, weren't you with Jesus?

And Peter cursed him three times, denied him three times, cursed him.

Cursed not the Lord, but cursed at them, the people that were saying that he had been with the Galileans.

So, we see how important that is.

I love 1 Corinthians 10 13.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as it's common to man, but God is faithful and just, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but with the temptation make a way to escape.

Number two, making a small matter of sin.

The Bible says in Ephesians 5.11, blessed is the man who walks.

Well, actually, he says in Ephesians 5.11, oh, I love this, and have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

I can remember when we started laughing at homosexuality, commercials or little bits 15, 20 years ago on TV, we would laugh at it.

Or it became, it became so common that we wouldn't say anything about it.

When it first came out, we'd say, whoa, that's wrong.

And as time came, we we became to the point that we're not politically correct and we're not gonna say anything.

We don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, we don't want to be embarrassed, or or or we started making small matter of what sin really was.

Hello.

That's where we are right now.

We have allowed what's happened in America to happen.

If the statistics are correct, that 80% of the people in America are supposed to be born-again Christians, where have we been?

Lord help.

That's it.

That's it.

No?

Where's the backbone?

Where's the courage?

Thank God.

Hey, what a horrible thing that we said very little about in the news when that when that terrorist looked those students in the face at the college and said, Are you a Christian?

And the ones that said, Yeah, he killed them.

But thank God for the courage of the ones that said, I'm a Christian.

They're in heaven right now having a ball with Jesus.

So it all starts from making a small matter of sin.

Number three.

For one to be comfortable and not serving Christ.

If you are comfortable not serving Christ, something's wrong if you're saved.

Jesus said, He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

Hello?

Paul said, by love, serve one another.

Galatians 5, 13.

Matthew 23, 11.

Ladies and gentlemen, if something's wrong and you don't, hey, you're not, you don't care about serving the Lord, you don't feel any conviction by not serving the Lord, something's wrong.

You're on that backsliding slope.

Number four, spending more time in men's books than God's book.

Now, what I mean by that, internet, news, games, newspapers, all the things that we read, the news we allow to consume our minds instead of the word of God.

If you spend more time reading, hey, worldly stuff compared to what you time you spend reading the Word of God, you might have a backsliding problem.

Ooh, that got something that got us all because the average, you know what the average statistics are for Christians reading the Bible every day less than 10 minutes.

God help us.

How can we know what God wants us to do if we don't know the word?

Can I get an amen?

Number five, when God's exhortations become a drudgery instead of a blessing, or an obligation rather than a joy and delight.

Whew! For the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Amen.

Hey, these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.

All these things were what was happening to Jonah.

His, hey, his command from God was a drudgery.

Hey, and and it was it was not a it was an obligation, not a joy.

Not a joy.

What it was a drudgery.

And then number six, if the things of the world grow sweeter and more attractive than Jesus Christ, if the things of the world grow sweeter and more attractive than Jesus Christ, wow.

Jesus said, No man can serve two masters, either he will hate the one, love the other, hold to the one, or despise the other.

Matthew 6, 24, and then verse 33 says, That's why seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things should be added unto me.

And I love what he says also in James 4.4, ye adulterers.

Now listen, listen at this language.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity.

That word, that King James word there means hostility with God.

It means anger with God.

Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Baby so sweet.

But do you see that?

Do you see that?

Enemy of God.

Proverbs 13, 15 says, Good understanding giveth favor, but the way of transgressors is hard.

Now let me repeat that.

That's a very important verse for you.

Good understanding giveth favor.

What do you what does he mean by good understanding?

What does Solomon mean there by good understanding?

Good understanding is meaning that you understand the word of God and you're obedient to his truth, his wisdom, his ways compared to the world.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

That's what he means.

He says, good understanding giveth favor, but the way of transgressors is hard.

In other words, you choose the way of the word, it's good.

You choose the way of the world, you're headed for a hard life.

Can I get on me?

The way of the backslider is always hard.

Romans 2.9.

Tribulation and anguish come upon the sinner.

Woohoo! Oh me.

And listen to what he says.

I memorized this early this morning.

Romans 3.16.

Destruction and misery.

Destruction and misery are in their ways.

Let me help you, please, church.

I love you.

Listen to me.

Destruction and misery is in the ways of the backslider.

God help us.

Amen.

And that's what we see with Jonah.

Number three.

Oh, well, got to give you this first.

Psalms 107, verse 9.

Psalms 107:9

Thank you.

For he satisfies the longing soul.

He fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest thing you want to be happy, you want to be satisfied.

Hey, you want the joy of the Lord, you want the excitement, you want to be happy and live.

Hey, I tell young people there is a storybook ending if it's done the storybook way, and the storybook way is the B-I-B-L-E.

He satisfies the longing soul.

He fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Is that not true?

I'm a testimony of that for 35 years.

Yes.

Give God a hand.

Amen.

Number three, the deliverance from the heat.

God prepared a blessing to deliver him from his disobedience.

Is that not unbelievable?

The word grief here, look at verse 6.

The word grief here is the same word translated wickedness in chapter 1, verse 2.

God in his grace is still trying to cool off the hot temper of Jonah and bring him to his senses.

The first time in the book we're told that Jonah was, hey, this is the first time in the book, look at it, that we're told Jonah was happy.

Now, what's this?

Because of a plant.

Hello.

Jonah's happy not because of the grace of God, but because of the good fortune of a plant.

He's got stinking thinking.

That's the title of the message.

You thought of it, I had forgotten about the title, didn't you?

I was waiting for the punchline.

Jonah had stinking thinking.

He was more interested in the things of the world than the word of God.

That's stinking thinking.

Look at it.

That's what it says.

And the Lord, God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief.

Now watch.

So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

Not of God's grace.

He didn't even thank God for sending the shade.

How many times has God blessed us and we took it for granted?

I'm guilty.

More than I want to admit.

Guess what?

God blessed you this morning to allow you to get out of bed and come to church.

Did you say thank you, Lord?

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you for Thanksgiving.

Thank you for blessing me.

Thank you for my job.

Thank you for my husband.

Thank you for my wife.

Thank you for my children.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You ought to just go around all day.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

God, you're awesome.

You know what we do?

We get so caught up in doing the things of God we forget the God Himself.

God help us.

How do we overcome that?

We gotta take a sense, hey, we gotta take a census with a C of our senses with an S.

Take a census of your senses.

And see what your senses are set on.

I like that.

Take a what did I say?

Take a look.

Yeah, take a C sensus of your S senses to see what your senses are focused on.

That's pretty good.

I don't know what I said, but it sounded good.

Actually, I do know what I said.

And how do we have our senses focused on the right thing?

Paul tells us, Colossians chapter 3, what's this?

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Woo! Oh, all right, I will this is good.

Be ready.

All right, what's this?

He says, if ye be risen with Christ, and if you're saved, you're risen with Christ.

That's the picture of baptism.

Seek those things which are above.

How?

Where Christ sits on the right hand of God.

Here it is.

Here's where we focus our senses.

Verse 2.

Woo! Set your affection on things above and not on things of this earth.

Amen.

Keep your mind set on the heavenly, not the earthly.

You say, Well, I'll be no earthly good.

I doubt that.

Amen.

There it is.

We got to seek those things which are above.

Set your affections on things above.

If our affections are in the wrong place, we will experience shipwreck.

Jonah experienced shipwreck twice.

Because his affections were on the wrong things.

Can I get an amen?

He had poor affections, but guess what?

Not only did he have poor affections, he had poor appreciation.

He didn't thank God.

For what God had done.

He didn't thank God for what God had done.

You know what Romans 2 says, verse 4?

The goodness of God leadeth thee to salvation.

Is that not good, folks?

Can I get an amen?

The goodness of God leads thee to salvation.

Number four.

The destruction of the gourd.

Now watch this.

This is so powerful.

I had, oh, this is this is this is illumination at its best.

God has been trying to get Jonah's.

Don't you miss this church, please.

This is this is one of the most important parts of the message.

God has been trying to get Jonah's attention through the goodness of God.

That's not working.

So you know what he does?

Now it's time for chastisement.

He's gonna have to learn the hard way.

Oh, if we would just listen.

So we wouldn't have to learn the hard way.

Oh, if we would just listen, young people.

Teenagers.

So you wouldn't have to learn the hard way.

But when you do, guess what?

He's gonna send something something.

And what he's gonna send?

He's gonna send the worms.

That beautiful shade.

He sent worms to eat the shade.

You with me?

And then he sent the wind.

I'm not talking about wind like you and I see around here.

We're talking about dust storms.

We're talking about the word there means it means grit and burning.

It raised the temperature over 20 degrees at least.

And it went on for three to seven days.

It will kill everything in its sight almost.

We're talking about death.

God help us.

To listen to God's gentle pleadings concerning our indifferences instead of his chastisement.

Can I get an amen?

Man, that's that's worth you being here.

So what we need to do is to examine our life and determine what the Lord's trying to tell us.

You'll be better off if you get honest with God in yourself than pretending nothing is wrong in our lives.

Examine yourself, oh God, he says in 1 Corinthians.

Examine yourself whether you'd be in a faith.

1 Corinthians 13, 5.

Now, here's a thought.

In my notes, I always write a thought when God gives me a thought in the truths that I'm learning.

If you use God's blessing for self-glory or self-advancement, if you use God's blessings for self-glory or self-advancement, look out for the worms.

They're coming.

No, that's not good, but that's truth.

That's truth.

Powerful, illuminating truth.

The worms, and then here's what I wrote to me.

The worms reveal that God uses little things to confound the wise and mighty and carry out his purposes.

Little things.

Worms.

God will get our attention.

And number five, the desire for death.

The wind's coming.

Jonah, hey, the sun's beaten down on him now.

He's no longer under the shade.

In fact, verse 8, look at what it says.

And it came to pass when the sun did arise that God prepared a vehement east wind, not just to win.

And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and wished himself to die and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

Oh, Lord, help us.

But now listen to me.

Here's another thought that God gave me.

It is better for you to fulfill God's will in your life so that you will enjoy your life than to be miserable, even to the point you could even come to that horrible place that you want to take your own life because you are not doing what God's called you to do.

Please, God help us that not to happen.

Can I get an amen?

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Nothing's better than loving Jesus and fulfilling God's will for your life.

Look at Psalms 31, 14 and 15.

But I trusted in thee, O Lord.

I said, Thou art my God.

Many times are in, hey, my times are in your hands.

Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from them that persecute me.

Now let me tell what Dr.

Crawford, a great old theologian, I go back to the old commentaries.

I like the new ones, don't get me wrong.

But I like the old Puritan theologians.

They were kind of strong, possibly to the point of legalistic in some things.

But don't just, don't always label strong truth legalism.

Can I get an amen?

Okay?

If it's the word of God, strong truth is meant for our betterment.

Can I get an amen?

Now watch.

Watch what he said.

I wrote it in my notes.

Dr.

Crawford's interpretation of this verse.

This verse right here, verse 8.

All my life, all my life, here we go.

All my life.

Ready?

All my life's whys, whens, where's and wherefores are in God's hand?

Is that not good?

All my life's whys, whins, where's and wherefores?

Are in God's hand.

According to Psalms 31, 14 and 15.

Does the senses of your senses reveal that your gourd is the Lord?

Does it reveal that my God is the Lord?

Well number?

Seven.

Or six, excuse me.

Number six.

The declaration of Jonah.

Look at what he says.

I'm gonna come back to that preparation.

Just hang with me.

That's at the end.

After Jonah was overcome, he said, and boy did he say it.

Look at verse 9.

He said, And God said to Jonah, Dost thou well to be angry for the Gord?

And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death.

Now the first time he asked the question, Jonah didn't answer him.

The second time he answers.

But now watch how he answers.

He answers God.

First time he didn't answer God, which was disrespect to God.

Second time he answers God and answers him angry, angrily.

He said, Yes, I knew, yeah, I'll answer you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't like it.

Never did like it.

Didn't want it.

Just kill me.

That's what that's where he was.

Man, I I read that and I say, Jonah.

Jonah.

How could you do that?

Then I think about me.

Yeah, okay.

But I mean, hey, they're angry.

He's angry at God.

Jonah's senses, we find he is a bitter man.

Now I know what you're thinking.

Here's what I'm thinking: evil never gives up until we go to be with the Lord.

Satan will hound us and hound us as long as we're living, and especially when we're trying to live a dynamic Christian life, Satan will hound us, hound us, hound us, wanting us to be selfish and mean and angry and bitter and ugly and disruptive and divisive.

Can I get an OB?

He will not give up till it's over.

So, last thing, the dumbness of Jonah's priorities.

Look at verse 1011.

Then said the Lord, look at how the Lord answered.

Thou hast had pity on the gourd for that which thou hast not labored, neither made it grow.

He says, You're more excited over a thing that you had nothing to do with, which came up in a night and perished in a night, and should not I spared none of them, that great city women, or more than sixcore thousand hundred and twenty persons, probably kids that cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand, and almost honey, honey, and the also much cattle, the animals too.

He said, Do you mean to tell me a gourd, a tree had its purpose?

It's more important to you than none of them, the lives of people.

You know what he said?

He said, Jonah, your priority is not a whack.

He said, Jonah, your goals are useless.

Your perspective of God's grace is perverted.

He thought God's grace was just for him and the Jews.

And I mean, he goes and just tells him, Your reasoning is rotten, your compassion is crooked, your sympathy is shattered.

These problems were the cause of his rebellion at the beginning of the book, and they are the cause of his foul attitudes at the close of the book.

Wow.

Jonah cared more for the gourd than souls.

He cared more about comfort than the destiny of thousands.

Now, with that said, God tells us to take the word and the gospel to the lost.

Let me close with this.

Go back to the lessons in preparation.

When I saw this church, I had a holy, holy spell.

Never seen it before.

Number one, we're to be prepared to rescue the perishing.

Amen.

Look at it.

The fish.

This you remember, God prepared four things.

First of all, he prepared the fish.

Remember?

To rescue who?

Jonah.

This was the job of the fish.

He was to rescue Jonah as a Christian.

This is our responsibility too.

We are to snatch the people out of hell.

Can I get an amen?

Jude chapter 1, verse 3.

Jude 1:3

Matthew 28, 19.

Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

We are to rescue the perishing.

Number two, we are to be prepared to revive or encourage.

The Lord revived Jonah.

It was the only thing in the book that made him happy.

Our job as Christians is to help revive or encourage, discourage, or backslidden Christians to follow the Lord.

Can I get him any meaning?

That's our purpose.

Oh, I love it.

Look at Galatians 6, 1 and 2.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, listen, ye which are spiritual, restore such as one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Wow, that's good.

Absolutely.

Number three, we are to be prepared for, now this is a good one, reversals and ruin.

Number two, we're to be prepared to revive or encourage Christians, the Gourd.

Number one, we're to be prepared to rescue those that are perishing, the fish.

Number three, we are to be prepared for reversals and ruin, the worm.

I wrote here, life is full of setbacks and reversals, and if we're not relying upon the Lord, those setbacks can wipe us out emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Can I get them amen?

You gotta prepare for them.

They're coming.

Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 24, 16, the righteous fall seven times, but they get back up.

Can I get them amen?

And then Galatians 6, 9 here, and let us not be weary and well doing for in due season.

We shall reap if we faint not.

If we don't give up, we're gonna reap, folks.

Don't give up, don't quit.

Satan wants you to quit.

He wants to get you down, he wants you to quit.

You just look him in the face and say, Bless God, I may be down, but I ain't out for the count.

He may get to nine, but bless God.

When he gets ready to say ten, you're at you say, In the name of Jesus, Jesus is a mess.

I'm not quitting.

I'm getting back up.

And then number four.

Last.

We are to be prepared for the rigors of life and our removal in death.

Hello.

Death's not bad.

We are to be prepared for the rigors of life and our removal in death.

And you say, what's that?

The vehement wind.

The wind brought the death to everything.

You say, Well, uh-oh, I don't like to think about death.

As a Christian, you ought to get excited about it.

Now I know you say, oh no, I'm supposed to.

Don't you run out of here and say, Brother Danny said, Oh, I ought to be excited about dying.

No, that's not what I said.

I said, death ought not to scare you as a Christian.

Because death for a Christian is your final reward.

You just, hey, this is not it, folks.

This is hey, hey, this is uh this now, this is what we're gonna be rewarded for.

We're ought to be in the game playing.

If you're not playing, yeah, you didn't need to be getting concerned.

But get in the game, get off the bed, start doing something, start serving the Lord.

We saw that was one of the signs of backslide.

If you're not serving, get involved in your church, do something.

If you don't do anything but set up a table here a little bit, take down a table, wipe off the table.

You're serving the Lord in God's house.

Anybody can do that.

You can sit there and serve, you can sit there and hold the door, you can open the door, you can you can do the most minute things that honor God in the greatest ways.

It's not, I know, well, I can't preach.

Well, hey, listen, not everybody needs to be on the platform.

Hello.

And by the way, I didn't want this job.

I was minding my own business when God called me.

I was wanting to coach.

I was coaching.

I loved it.

You know what I've learned?

I'm coaching now.

I've been coaching for 34 years.

I'm coaching and encouraging Christians to be like Jesus.

Come on, let's go to the next level.

Hebrews 9 27.

And as it is appointed unto death, as it appointed unto all men wants to die.

And after this the judgment.

Psalms 23:4.

Psalms 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.

For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Philippians 1 21, for me to live is Christ, but to die is to gain.

Death is coming.

It's coming.

We're all gonna face it if the Lord doesn't come back and take his church out.

Now I vote for the rapture.

Wouldn't you like to be sitting here and by the time I say amen, we're gone.

Wouldn't that be a way to go?

I've been praying that lately.

Can we just go as a group?

On a Sunday morning.

So if you're not in church on that Sunday, you're gonna miss it.

Woo! That's good, preacher! That was funny.

Let me ask you this morning.

Do you know him?

Do you really know him as your personal Lord and Savior?

Isn't that truth good?

Is that not unbelievable?

Great truth.

Aren't you glad when you come here?

Forget me, I'm just the instrument.

But I promise you what I will do, I'll teach you the truth.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free.

Free indeed.

I had the greatest time with the college group Thursday night.

There's about 20 of them there.

If you're missing on Thursday nights, college students, you're missing a blessing.

Paul and Elaine do a fabulous job.

But we got into all kinds of things.

And I miss that.

You know what I used to do at Liberty Susan I?

She was a professor, she headed up the consumer science department.

About once a semester, I'd invite them, because I taught the largest class on campus, thousands of kids in evangelism.

Dr.

Falwood wouldn't let anybody teach evangelism but me.

And I didn't want anybody teaching it but me.

And since I was a boss, I taught it.

Because I'd tell them every week about somebody I'd led to Christ or a witness to.

But you know what we used to do?

Once a semester, Susan and I, I'd bring her in in that big class of a thousand freshmen.

We'd sit in the middle, and I'd have them two weeks before write down any question they wanted to ask me and Susan.

Any question from relationships, anything.

It didn't matter.

Anything.

But one question, because there's a bunch of people.

And we would spend the last two class periods, an hour and a half each time, because I'd be, I'd always stayed on track, always filled in my blanks, on time.

We would answer their questions.

You know what all those teenagers said, Pastor Danny?

Those were the two of the best classes we had in the whole university.

Because you know what we'd do?

We'd sit there, Susan would sit right here, and I sit right next to Susan like this, and we had our Bibles.

And I made them brand.

I said, the only book you gotta bring for this class is your Bible.

And every question they asked, we'd answer by the book.

By the book.

You say that's pretty challenging.

Well, not if you know the book.

Know the book.

Study the book.

Know what the book says.

Amen?

Because ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Listen, it's not what I say, it's what God says.

You'll change your life.

Everything I've said today came from the book.

And if it's my opinion, I tell you it's my opinion.

Amen.

Now I know what you're thinking, and I'm gonna close with you.

What happened to Jonah?

A lot of speculation.

Even with great theologians.

Some say he never repented.

You know, he just died miserably.

Some say he may have committed suicide.

I don't believe that.

And I don't believe he died miserably.

Here's why.

He wrote the book.

So at the end, he answered the right question.

The last question is what are you gonna do with the gospel?

You're gonna take it to the world.

1 Peter 2, only the godly.

Hey, the book was written by godly men.

Amen.

So Jonah repented because he wrote the book.

He opened his life to us and said, I blew it.

Don't you do like I did.

There's another path.

Love him with all your heart and be obedient to him with everything you got.

And you won't go through what I went through.

Amen.

Same as Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, if you remember, when we went through that.

Amen.

Jonah repented, no doubt in my mind.

Because he wrote the book.

What about you?

What about me?

Wherever he leaves, I'll go.

Now we can sing that.

But do you really mean it?

Do you really mean it?

Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

I love you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I love you with all my heart.

Most of you, I have been in your homes or been in your businesses.

I've sat down with you, I've talked with you, I've done everything I can to let you know how much we love you.

But I got good news.

As much as I, Susan and I and our council and our leadership love you, God loves you more.

And he died for you.

Would you give your life to him this morning?

If you're lost, would you ask him this morning to come into your life and save you?

If you're backslidden, like Jonah, bad attitude, discouraged, would you ask God to forgive you of that bad attitude?

To say, Lord, I'm coming back.

And Lord, I'm gonna live for you.

I'm gonna be radically sold out for the listen, if terrorists who are dying and blowing themselves up and going to hell can radically do what they do, where is the Christians and our radicalism for goodness and righteousness?

Where are we?

We got to stand in the gap, folks.

Hey, we're standing for Westover and Chelsea.

Can I get an Amen?

We're standing.

We're gonna make a difference.

Every head bow, every eye tip.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

If you would like to find out more about us, visit us on our webpage at thechurch at cw.com.

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Send us an email at office at the church at cw.com.

We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.